Student loans: in recent years, one of the top issues that financial observers and political candidates alike have taken an interest in is the amount of debt that graduating students find themselves saddled with. The majority of this debt can be attributed to student loans, which many utilize to pay for their tuition, books, and other living expenses while in school. According to Student Loan Hero, the average graduate in 2016 owed more than $37,000 and Americans now hold an estimated $1.48 trillion in student debt. As a result, 83% of those aged 22 to 35 say their education debt is to blame for them not yet buying a home while 90% say they’d commit to working for a company if they offered some kind of student loan repayment assistance.
With the frightening stats that consistently emerge about how certain educational loans are crippling students’ financial lives, it’s no wonder that student debt has been a hot topic — with some groups and lawmakers even calling for student debts to be canceled, citing the economic benefits such a move could have. In many of these discussions, educational lenders have been vilified for their role in the crisis, sometimes rightfully and sometimes not. Because of this, I wanted to talk to someone in the educational lending space about student finance and their role in it.
Benjamin Breitbart, Vice President of TFC Tuition Financing, told me his company partners with various schools in order to allow them to offer their students financing. As he explained, “We primarily work with non-traditional students, so we’re trying to open up the education system to students of all economic backgrounds.” As part of that goal, Breitbart says TFC makes a point to work with students after they graduate, noting, “It can take a couple months for them to find a job to get their feet on the ground. So what we can do is to partner with the school to recommend deferment of payments or refinance the loan to a different payment amount so that it matches the economic situation of the student.”
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